‘It is in no way auxiliary to the original, but an independent
form, a reflection on the original. After transcription, the pieces are no
longer the same.’ Thus Clytus Gottwald, on the relationship between
the transcription and the original. Given that he was inspired by
Ligeti’s Lux aeterna in the 1960s and that he has dismissed
Richard Strauss’s attempts to find a new choral sound as ‘a
blind alley’, it’s clear that he has a Boulezian sense of
self-confidence about his mission. But given that it’s not truly
possible to reconceive the Adagietto from Mahler’s Fifth
Symphony as a literal transcription for a capella choir, Gottwald seeks
other methods to render the work. Harmony and melodic lines are respected,
nor can any alteration be made to the structure of the piece.

To continue with this example - and it is a singular example given
it’s an orchestral transcription, not one of the usual lieder
transcriptions - Gottwald has taken Joseph von Eichendorff’s Im
Abendrot as the text for the Adagietto, regarding the movement as
an ‘air’, a love song, and thus, in his view, in many ways a
legitimate approach to take. The potential expansion of the choral
repertoire occasioned by such work is a consideration, though whether many
choirs will take it on board is a moot point. I find Gottwald’s work
on Urlicht, whilst beautiful in itself, devoid of the explicit
colouration and timbres evoked in its symphonic-orchestral context.
Doubtless the counter-argument is that it could hardly be otherwise and that
is why this and other pieces have independence as works of art in
themselves. Quite what is brought to Alma Mahler’s three lieder,
though, is perhaps less certain. Something seems to blunt her harmonic
modernity when her songs are inflated in this way.

Gottwald is now seemingly less complacent about the success of his
transcription of Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen - which is only
one of three pieces here to have been recorded before - and it is probably
his most successful transcription in this collection of pieces by the
Mahlers. One appreciates that it has its place here, though another
performance can be found, for example, on Gottwald’s
Trankriptionen album on Carus 83.181.

The singing is really splendid, and at a somewhat higher level of
sensitivity
and dynamic control to that on a companion disc called Hymnus an das
Leben
[83.458 - see review],
which is sung by the KammerChor Saarbrücken. Maybe that is reason
enough
to invest.